Effective Teaching Moves by Learning Outcome
This chart, developed by Linda Nilson (2010), “lists effective teaching moves by the learning
outcome they serve. Some of them specify what you can do or say in class to familiarize your
students with different ways of thinking about and working with the material. The rest are
activities and exercises for your students to give them practice and you feedback on their
learning” (p. 108).
Cognitive Level
Remember
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Understand
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For You to Do
Suggest prior knowledge to which
students can link new and future
information and knowledge.
Chunk knowledge into coherent
groups, categories, or themes.
Share devices to improve memory
such as mnemonic patterns, maps,
charts, comparisons, groupings,
highlighting of key words or first
letters, visual images, and rhymes.
Point out parts, main ideas,
patterns, and relationships within
sets of facts or information.
Outline new or upcoming material
in simple form.
Concept-map or mind-map new or
upcoming material.
Explain with concrete examples,
metaphors, questions, or visual
representations.
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Apply
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Give multiple examples of a
phenomenon that are meaningful
to students.
Define the procedures for use,
including the rules, principles, and
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For Students to Do
Practice recalling and restating
information.
Practice recognizing or identifying
information.
Practice recalling and reproducing
information.
Practice restating concept
definitions and principles.
Restate or paraphrase and
summarize information or
knowledge.
Describe or explain phenomena or
concepts using words different
from those used in the initial
teaching.
Identify the correct meaning of
concepts or terms.
Add details or explanations to basic
content.
Relate new to previously learned
content.
Construct visual representations of
main ideas (mind or concept maps,
tables, flowcharts, graphs,
diagrams, or pictures).
Generate new examples and
nonexamples.
Paraphrase the procedures,
principles, rules, and steps for
using or applying the material.
Source: Nilson, L. B. (2010). Teaching at its best: A research-based resource for college instructors (3rd ed.). San
Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Reproduced by permission.
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Analyze
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steps.
Provide the vocabulary and
concepts related to procedures.
Explain steps as they are applied.
Define the contexts, problems,
situations, or goals for which given
procedures are appropriate.
Explain the reasons that
procedures work for different types
of situations or goals.
Ensure students’ readiness by
diagnosing and strengthening their
command of related concepts,
rules, and decision-making skills.
Provide broad problem-solving
methods and models.
Begin with simple, highly
structured problems; then
gradually move to more complex,
less structured ones.
Use questions to guide student
thinking about problem
components, goals, and issues.
Give students guidance in
observing and gathering
information, asking appropriate
questions, and generating
solutions.
Point out the important and the
unimportant features or ideas.
Point out examples and
nonexamples of a concept,
highlighting similarities and
differences.
Give a wide range of examples,
increasing their complexity over
time.
Emphasize the relationships among
concepts.
Explain different types of thinking
strategies, including how to think
open-mindedly, responsibly, and
accurately.
Emphasize persistence when
answers are not apparent.
Ask students questions that require
their persistence in discovering and
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Practice applying the material to
problems or situations to gain
speed, consistency, and ease in
following the problem-solving
steps.
Solve simple, structured problems,
then complex, unstructured ones.
Practice recognizing the correct use
of procedures, principles, rules, and
steps with routine problems, then
complex ones.
Demonstrate the correct use of
procedures, principles, rules, and
steps with routine problems, then
complex ones.
Classify concepts, examples, or
phenomena into correct categories.
Summarize different types of
thinking strategies.
Use types of thinking strategies to
analyze and evaluate their own
thinking.
Practice choosing the best type of
thinking strategy to use in different
real-world situations and explaining
why their choice is superior.
Detect and identify flaws and
fallacies in thinking.
Identify and explain instances of
open- and closed-mindedness.
Identify and explain instances of
responsible versus irresponsible
and accurate versus inaccurate.
applications of thinking strategies.
Source: Nilson, L. B. (2010). Teaching at its best: A research-based resource for college instructors (3rd ed.). San
Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Reproduced by permission.
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Evaluate
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analyzing data or information.
Ask questions that make students
explain why they are doing what
they are doing.
Explain and model how to conduct
systematic inquiry, detect flaws and
fallacies in thinking, and adjust
patterns of thinking.
Create conflict or perplexity by
posing paradoxes, dilemmas, or
other situations to challenge
students’ concepts, beliefs, ideas,
and attitudes.
Explain how to recognize and
generate proof, logic, argument,
and criteria for judgments.
Explain and show students the
consequences of choices, actions,
or behaviors.
Provide relevant human or social
models that portray the desired
choices, actions, or behaviors.
Explain with examples how factors
such as culture, experience, desires,
interests, and passions, as well as
systematic thinking, influence
choice and interpretations.
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Answer questions that require
persistence in discovering and
analyzing data or information.
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Evaluate the validity of given
information, results, or conclusions.
Draw inferences from observations,
and make predictions from limited
information.
Explain how they form new
judgments and how and why their
current judgments differ from their
previous ones.
Identify factors that influence
choice and interpretations, such as
culture, experience, desires,
interests, and passions, as well as
systematic thinking.
Detect mistakes, false analogies,
relevant vs. irrelevant issues,
contradictions, and faulty
predictions.
Critique a research study. Use
research and analysis to devise the
best available solutions to
problems, and explain why they are
the best.
Choose among possible behaviors,
perspectives, or approaches, and
provide justifications for these
choices.
Explain their experiences with
inquiry activities and the results.
Resolve a situation or solve a
problem that requires speculation,
inquiry, and hypothesis formation.
Resolve a situation or solve a
problem requiring a novel
approach.
Design a research study to resolve
a conflicting finding.
Write the limitations section of a
research study.
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Create
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Promote careful observation,
analysis, description, and definition.
Explain the process and methods of
scientific inquiry.
Explain and provide examples of
how to identify a research problem,
speculate about causes, formulate
testable hypotheses, and identify
and interpret results and
consequences.
Model inquiry and discovery
processes.
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Source: Nilson, L. B. (2010). Teaching at its best: A research-based resource for college instructors (3rd ed.). San
Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Reproduced by permission.
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Encourage independent thinking
and avoid dead ends and simplistic
answers.
Show students examples of
creativity to solve problems.
Encourage students to take novel
approaches to situations and
problems.
Explain phenomena using
metaphors and analogies.
Give students examples of
reframing a problem—turning it
upside down or inside out or
changing perceptions about it.
Explain and encourage
brainstorming.
Pose questions and problems with
multiple good answers or solutions.
Give students opportunities for
ungraded creative performance and
behavior.
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Write the conclusions section of a
research study.
Develop products or solutions to fit
within particular functions and
resources.
Manipulate concrete data to solve
challenging thinking situations.
Practice reframing a problem—
turning it upside down or inside out
or changing perceptions about it.
Explain phenomena using
metaphors and analogies.
Source: Nilson, L. B. (2010). Teaching at its best: A research-based resource for college instructors (3rd ed.). San
Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Reproduced by permission.